Jon

I think I still have 4 of the queens alive.
On Monday I made up 5 apideas with nurse bees from my strongest colony and put a queen in each inside a hair roller.
It's best to leave the bees in an apidea queenless and closed in for a couple of days so that they are ready to accept a queen or a queen cell but I had the queens already so I put each one in a roller for protection rather than running them in the front door.
I left the apideas closed for 48 hours with a roller inside each.
When I checked on Wednesday one was dead inside her cage. I think the bees just ignored it and it didn't get fed.
The other queens seemed to have been accepted as the bees were quiet and there were lots clinging to each roller.
I removed one and put the inner cover and lid back on the apidea. I removed the top of the roller and placed it tight to the entrance of the apidea. The queen walked in and the bees around the entrance started to fan. I did the same with the rest but the final queen was ejected from its apidea with 3 of 4 bees around it trying to ball it. I managed to get the bees off and I put her back in the roller. I put the roller back inside again.
I tried again yesterday and the same thing happened.
I released her for a 3rd time today and I think she was accepted this time as I saw her in a cluster of bees when I looked through the plastic cover later.
All I need now is drones and they are in short supply. I see the weather is to turn colder next week as well so maybe not much chance or mating flights either. I think the limit for getting a queen mated is up to about 25 days after hatching. Any later and they turn into drone layers.